


Rue with a Difference

by Ivy_in_the_Garden



Category: CLAMP - Works, Chobits, Kobato
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Existential Crisis, F/F, Feels got too real, Flowers, Gentle Romance, I just really like these two okay?, Kobato's such a mama hen, Sad optimism, You could read this as shipping if you wanted to, flower symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-12
Updated: 2016-02-12
Packaged: 2018-05-16 05:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5815582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ivy_in_the_Garden/pseuds/Ivy_in_the_Garden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While soothing souls to fill her flask of hearts, Kobato comes across a mysterious and lonely spirit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rue with a Difference

Against the cool April air, Kobato dashed after her wayward hat, its silk ribbons wavering just out of her reach.

"Dobato," Ioryogi hissed from within her flailing handbag. 

The hat rode the undulating waves of the wind, before resting on the branch of an oak. She seized it, and hand on her chest, gasped from the exertion. Her impromptu journey had led her into the forest clearing.  Irises, ranunculi, croci, and hyacinths ranged across the path, their bright colors striving to outperform each other. 

Ignoring Ioryogi's scolding, she bent down to better examine them. The creases of petals of the Icelandic poppy delighted her. Four oversized petals adorned a stem far too slender for such a weight, yet it stood upright. She smiled, running her fingers along the hairs of the stem.

"Dobato! Stop being such a dreamer and look around!"

Startled, she obeyed, but saw nothing out of the ordinary, only the dappled shade of oaks.

"Oh Ioryogi I don't--"

Behind the sweeping ivy stood a figure. Dressed in a simple paisley frock with lace at the edges, the figure watched her silently.  

Kobato stood up, embarrassment flushing her face. "Oh, I didn't see you there." She smiled warmly, clapping her hands together in a sudden revelation. "Are you related to Mrs. Mihara? You look just like her twins! Oh, they're such darlings!"

A curious expression crossed the figure's face.

"Dobato." Ioryogi's voice took on a paternal tone. "The better question is _where_ she's from." 

"I don't quite understand."

Ioryogi sighed. "There are a million worlds. Not just the human world and the one of spirits. Worlds wrapped within each other. Worlds connected by variation." At the sight of Kobato's puzzlement, he continued, exasperated. "This woman is neither a spirit nor a person. In this world, she lives as Chise, but her own world, she lived as someone else."

"Freya." The figure's voice was like glass: delicate and clear, but heavy with something unspoken.

Kobato lit up with sudden happiness. "Nice to meet you, Freya. I'm Kobato, and this is my companion, Ioryogi." 

Freya smiled sadly. 

"Do you like the flowers? I'm so glad they woke up after the winter." Kobato sighed. "I love them so."

"Where are you from, Freya?" Ioryogi asked, looking over the slight figure. "Never seen anyone with those ears before."

Kobato reddened at his crude talk. _Surely it was impolite to point out her differences!_

Freya said nothing, only turned her gaze to the Kobato's home. The laughter of Chiho and Chise, like the song of sparrows, carried over.

"Promise you won't ever leave me?" Chiho giggled. 

"Promise!" 

At Freya's pained look, Kobato's heart sank. "I'm sure your sister is waiting for you!" Up close, Freya's eyes were smooth and dark like malachite. Certainly not human. But Kobato cared very little for that. 

"She has found the one just for her. I am no longer needed," Freya replied, quietly, yet firmly. 

"So? You think a soulmate can replace a sister?" Kobato gripped her hat, longing to hug Freya. "If I had a sister, I'd miss her if she ever left me."

Freya shook her head. "She's happy now. She lost her past so that she could find her love, and I was part of that past." She averted her gaze. "I-I don't hold it against her. I caused nothing but pain to my beloved, so much pain that my circuits ceased to function and I broke irreparably. I longer have a body to embrace her with." Something terrible moved across her perfect face. "Chobits do not have souls. I'm only a compilation of electrical energy which slowly lessens every day. One day, I will cease to be, and so will all my memories."

 Ioryogi nodded. "She's one of Dr. Ichiro Mihara's androids. A chobit. Rumored to have true artificial intelligence."

For the first time, anger surged through Kobato, manifesting itself as tears. How could Ioryogi just talk about Freya as if she was an object? A scientific wonder to catalog? 

"One thing I learned from Fujimoto is that energy remains constant!" Kobato touched the bud of a crocus. "Perhaps this flower remembers her smile, and that bamboo, her laugh." She brushed away another tear. "Nothing ever leaves us, not ever!"

Freya's voice was so slight, that Kobato almost missed it. "Thank you."

"I mean it! I refuse to believe anything else. Our lives are _never_ in vain."

 Those large, black eyes never welled with tears nor even blinked, but despite their inability to express pain, Kobato's heart grew heavy with Freya's sorrow.

 "I cannot bring myself to look at my beloved, so I thought that watching them would bring me some peace," Freya whispered. "In my selfishness, I find myself envying them. What variable separates us, I wonder? An eternal soul?"

Kobato toyed with the ribbon of her hat, unsure of how to comfort her. "You're just as real as the twins." 

"Am I?"

"Certainly."

Freya gave her another of her unfathomable gazes. "Perhaps."

"I'll make you a grave-site!" Kobato clenched her hands. "I'll leave you flowers and visit you so that you won't be lonely!"

"Dobato," Ioryogi began. 

"No, Ioryogi! Freya is a person, and I will mourn her passing. Even if I'm the only one." 

Ioryogi started a retort, but on seeing Kobato's sad-eyed determination, stopped. "Alright, Kobato."

Kobato moved closer to Freya. "Where would you like to be remembered?"

Freya paused, hard in thought; she looked even less substantial than she had a few minutes ago. She bit her perfectly sculpted, plastic lip in thought, before extending a finger to point at Kobato's chest. "Here." For the first time, she smiled. "Chobits do not need grave-sites. Elda lives in my heart, and I should like to live in yours. We won't be lonely there."

Tears, wanton and unrestrained, spilled from Kobato, as she tried to embrace Freya, finding only a slight crackle in the air as she dissipated from this world entirely. Kobato collapsed to ground, her dress billowing around her, as she sobbed, arms wrapped around herself. "Freya! Freya! Oh, Freya, don't go! Don't leave me!"

Ioryogi watched her quietly, his own heart pained by the sight. 

But yet, unbeknownst to both, in the flask inside her bag, appeared another heart.  

**Author's Note:**

> This was a crack ship, and then feels got real. Story of my life.  
> Is this the second sad Clamp story I write? I think it is. Oh dear.


End file.
